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Cider week: Week 29 of BigBarn’s food and drink weeks

Cloudy or clear, dry or sweet, with all the sunshine now is certainly the time to sit in the warm weather and enjoy a cider of choice! You can now find a local cider almost everywhere. It is exciting trying all the different types made with its own style, story and real juice instead of ‘concentrate’.

Britain’s cider makers are on hand, from the big brewers to the small artisan, to offer something to suit all tastes and many still even have their own orchards so bottles can be traced right back to the tree from which the apples were picked. Take a look at the National Cider Maker’s Association website for more details on cider and cider producers.

We at BigBarn would love every community to have an apple press to make juice and cider. Every household could grow apples and get together for the big ‘press’ in the autumn and celebration of the seasons crop. Knowledge can be passed from one generation to the next and communities built around food and drink.

If you have a favourite recipe using cider, and would like the chance to win a prize, please video your recipe and add it to KIS (Keep it Simple) Cookery. Please have a look at existing videos here and try and keep your video less than 2 minutes long.

Surprising Cider Facts

1. Over two million new cider apple trees have been planted since 1995
2. In the 14th Century children were baptised in cider, it was cleaner than the water!
3. Farm workers’ wages in earlier times included four pints of cider a day.
4. Around 13% of UK adults drink cider at least once a month while 49% drink wine and 51% drink beer.
5. Cider is equally enjoyed by men and women, but women drink half the volume of men.
6. The volume of cider produced annually in the UK is in excess of 6 million hectolitres or 130 million UK gallons.
7. 45% of all the apples grown in the UK are now used here for cider making. A reducing amount of apple juice concentrate from central European countries like Austria, Germany and Italy is required to make up the shortfall and to blend to produce certain styles of cider.
8. At one time, 365 different varieties of cider apples were grown